More than 1,000 cars torched in France during New Year’s Eve

An army of security and emergency forces on the streets of France could not prevent a rise in the number of cars that were torched.

Compared with last year, the number rose by 96, from 935 to 1,031 this year. The statistics from the ministry of the interior also say that more arrests were being made: from 456 to 510 this year.

At least 140,000 security and emergency forces were at work during New Year’s Eve in France. One incident that particularly shocked the nation was the attempt by a group of youth to lynch two police officers in a Paris suburb.

French President Emmanuel Macron went to Twitter and called it a “cowardly and criminal lynching of police officers doing their duty”.